It’s My Blog-iversary!

I wrote my first blog post one year ago today. I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like lately, because second grade is taking up a lot of my time. I’m not actually in second grade, I’m teaching it. I haven’t been a classroom teacher for five years, but I’m loving it. I’m already sad that I will never have another class like this one. They looooove to read, and I love introducing them to my favorite authors. They write plays–at recess. One girl is writing her own novel; I believe she is already up to chapter six or seven. They give me books that they are reading and ask me to make packets of questions and activities for them. They decided to have a science fair and brought in some very impressive projects. And they are fun and funny. One of my favorite characteristics in students is a well-developed sense of humor, and I have a very good class.

Even though I haven’t been blogging often in recent months, I’ve still had a steady trickle of visitors. It’s interesting to look at my stats and see what brings people to my blog, especially the search terms they use. Coming in at nearly 38%, the top search that leads readers to my blog (and this post) are variations on the theme of nerf sash/dart belt, which weirdly includes a few searches for “nerf dart cake recipe.” The next most popular search (26%) that lands people on my blog are various iterations of “What’s the opposite of ode?” which I wondered myself in this post, which was a follow-up to this one. If I add in the oddball “What’s the opposite of dirge?” it bumps up to almost 28%.

In addition to seeing the search terms that bring readers to my blog, I can also see views by country. People from 34 different countries have read my blog. I have followers, too, who have signed up to be notified when I publish a new post, and only 12% of them are people I actually know in real life. Weird.

Looking at the search terms that bring readers in, it won’t surprise you to learn that the posts that have had the most views are Nerf Dart Tag Ammo Belt and What’s the Opposite of ‘Ode’? The next two most viewed posts a personal favorites of mine, Grammar Police and (Don’t) Look at Me! Grammar Police is also one of the most commented-on posts, along with Mmm…Soft Pretzels. I have a slight pet peeve about comments, though. Many of my readers are friends who click the links I post on my facebook page. They comment, but they go back to facebook to do it!

Going forward, I hope to get back to writing more often, and to the sewing and cooking projects that I originally intended to blog about. Maybe I’ll try one of those sites that provide a daily/weekly writing prompt. If nothing else, I’ll see you this time next year with my nerf dart cake recipe finally perfected!